Category Archives: Stamping

My card making for September focused on supportive messages for a couple of friends having some health challenges. This seemed like a good time to participate in a card challenge at Just For Fun Stamps. The challenge for September was to take their design sketch and make a card using it as inspiration. Yellow cardstock looked nice with the purple striped paper, and I had some purple washi tape too.

So I got out some supplies, and began by stamping a tall motif on a light lavendar paper. This is actually three different stamps that go together to make one basket full of flowers. I used three different colors of ink, and stamped the flowers several times to create a full bouquet.

I glued the striped piece down in the position suggested by the sketch, and added washi tape to make the horizontal bars.

The basket of flowers was added, and I couldn’t resist adding the little bee too. The sentiment is in the bottom right corner. This card is my entry into the challenge.

I had one more message of support to do, and used my pickup truck again. This is a favorite one because of the sentiment that goes with it. I pulled some blue cardstock, and some of the blue handmade paper that I got from a blogger friend on Etsy. I plan to make some of my own now that the weather has cooled off.

“Thought you could use a little pickup” works on so many cards!

I used up the last of the gold washi tape, and placed the homemade paper across the bottom. Aren’t those dogs in the truck bed cute!

Did you know that I create cards with your message inside? See my Etsy store listing for custom cards. I create a card, then put a printed sentiment on the inside that is your personal message, and it can be sent directly to your recipient. I need a lead time of five days for creating and mail time. Or I can send the card and an envelope to you for presentation.

I have put some stamp sets in my Etsy store too, if you are interested in adding to your collection at a really low price for brand new retired sets. Stampin’ UP! Stamp Sets.

Are you stamping or playing with paper?

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One last reminder, the Fat Quarter Shop is raising money for Hurricane Harvey relief with a special pattern called Healing Hearts. Click on Fat Quarter Shop , hover over patterns/books and then click on the banner for Healing Hearts. While you are there, check out the Flash Sale and the Precuts bargains to help you make your quilt.

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Stamping was lots of fun in August, with the Safelight Project and making some thank you cards for friends. When I have a number of cards to do at once, I sometimes will use elements from other cards I have received. I’ll cut up those cards for bookmarks and gift tags, and sometimes I keep a pretty element to use on another card. This time I had several cards to make at once, so it was stamping fun time.

I needed to send several thank you cards to friends in the longarm group that helped me complete all the Quilts of Valor I had. Each lady is unique, so I made unique cards for each of them. Starting with this one, I used an element from another card, the Thank You sentiment was very sweet, and the flower so pretty, it didn’t need much more. So, I mounted it on a printed paper with a ribbon accent. The envelope got a butterfly stamp.

This one has a printed vellum paper over beige card stock, with the sentiment stamped on the vellum in blue ink. I put a blue patterned paper over the vellum, and added the gold flowers to echo the flower in the vellum. A flower sticker also went on the envelope.

I have a huge flower stamp that will cover almost the whole card front on a 4×6 card. I stamped the image in purple ink on lavendar paper, with the sentiment on two frames. The lacy dark purple accent is washi tape, on both the card and envelope.

Inside these cards had this sentiment, and a personal note was added.

Then the winner of the Safelight project needed a card too, for her gift card. So, I used that same patterned paper (I love that one!) with ‘Celebrate’ stamped in dark pink on light yellow paper. The rose is a resin element glued to the top of two scallop frames. The top frame is stamped in green with the design made for that size scallop.

I bring this up again because I have another story to tell you. I had lunch at their Dandelion Cafe a couple of days after the delivery of the bags. While I was there, Laresa came in and saw me sitting with my friend enjoying their wonderful tomato pie. It is a deep dish pie, layers of tomatoes and cheese with melted cheese on top and a perfect, flaky crust.

She told me that just the night before, they had 7 women driven to the shelter from another county because that shelter was full. Imagine, having the courage to finally seek help, only to be shuttled off to a shelter many miles away in another county. Well, these women arrived exhausted and depressed, but they got a big lift from the spa bags they were given. It made them feel special at a truly awful time, made worse by the long trip, and it is all due to the wonderful readers who helped with this project.

Last night I got this email from Laresa, and want you all to see it. She wrote “Just wanted to drop you a note to say thank you again for the spa bags and lovely gifts inside for our shelter residents. They are enjoying everything in them and feeling pampered every time they use them! We have also taken in new clients almost every day this week and they are receiving bags, too. What a lovely gift when they are so traumatized and just settling in to a new place with new people. Thank you very much. ” She also left a comment with more information on the previous Safelight post on the final delivery. You can see that comment HERE, just scroll to the last comment. Thank you again, dear readers, from the Safelight shelter and the directors, and me.

I talked DH into having lunch there again yesterday. The Dandelion Cafe is open 9:30 – 2:30 Monday through Friday, and is a training program for shelter residents, and the food is really good. He got a turkey and apple panini with a side salad, a bargain at $8.95.

And I had a tomato pie slice with a salad. It is a huge amount of food for $8.25. Both meals filled us up so we really didn’t need much supper later. Yes, I will soon begin work on a tomato pie, this is just too good for harvest time, and I expect to have a lot of tomatoes ripening at the same time.

It seems like I have made more cards than this, but it is possible I sent them out without remembering to take pictures.

But if you need inspiration, just click on the stamping category on the sidebar to see more card designs.

I had to make another trip to the store, luckily they still had some of the same tote bags. More bags were filled with goodies, cards, and essentials.

Each one got a piece of sparkly tissue on top, so the spa bag was more like a gift. It is with great pleasure that I tell you the number of spa bags increased to 45 with all the donations!! Thank you so much to everyone that helped, it couldn’t have happened without everyone’s help.

And now, congratulations to the winners of the prizes!

Cindi W. won the fantastic Stampin’ Up kit! Visit Stampin’ Up to find a demonstrator near you!

The winner of the Mastercard Gift Card was Nancy B, congratulations!!

So, bags all made, I made arrangements to deliver them on Monday. On Sunday evening, I loaded the car. The trunk was completely full.

So, I put the seats down in the back and continued to stuff the car to its gills. The last two were tucked onto the floor behind the driver seat. The bag of extra toothbrushes, combs, deodorants, and nail files were stashed in there too.

Monday, August 7th, was a rainy day, so we had to wait for a break in the downpours. The car was loaded and ready when a break came near 11:30 in the morning. I called Laresa, said I was on my way, and she was waiting outside with two rolling carts to quickly get the bags inside before the bottom fell out of the rain clouds again. Turning on the hazard lights, I jumped out and we quickly loaded the carts.

Then, I parked the car, and went inside to meet the wonderful people that run this shelter, see the programs they have in process and have a tour of the facility in its construction stage. Here are three of the shelter managers from left, Charlotte Rapp -Shelter Manager, Laresa Griffin -Director of Development and Wendy McEntire – Job Training Program Director.

While I was parking the car, Laresa said a resident saw the bags and got very excited that one would be for her. Charlotte planned a time to hand out to everyone at once for that evening. On Tuesday, Laresa sent me an email with the resident’s reactions. She said “the clients were ecstatic! They were so ‘happy to have personal items that were like luxuries, not just the necessities’ and it made them all feel so special. They really appreciated the handmade cards and the caring notes written inside. Thank you and your blog readers who contributed to these amazing gifts for our clients. It really has lightened their loads, giving them a self-confidence boost and the ability to pamper themselves. We appreciate you and your hard work in coordinating this project and loving on our clients in such a personal way. Thank you!” There were enough bags for every resident of the shelter, and the transitional apartments, and a few left over which will be stored for future needs. There were also about a dozen cards more than bags, and Laresa will give those out to those who need a lift later.

So, this project is finished. There really isn’t an opportunity to sew anything for them at this time. We did explore the ideas of seasonal table linens, or pillowcases, but those just cannot be used right now. The shelter is in transition, and is a transitional facility as well. But, for local readers, they do have a program beginning sewing class that meets every Monday, and they can use fabric and thread if you have any to donate. Just take it to the Safelight thrift store, and tell them it is for the Sewing class at the shelter.

Thank you to everyone that contributed cards and items, and donated money to make it such a success!

The response to the Safelight project idea has just been incredible, so get ready for a long and picture heavy post. Thank you so much to everyone that has participated, with cards and donations for the gift bags. I have begun assembling the bags, and want to show you were we are at this point. I do need to apologize, I must have hit a wrong button and my first paragraphs of this post’s draft posted to the site last Thursday. I immediately took it down, and I apologize for the mis-post. A few days after the first post, I purchased the tote bags, removing the labels and opening them up all over the office floor.

Taking what funds I had at the end of that week, I went to the stores and found lots of things to begin filling the bags. I got pretty hairbrushes with flower handles, hand lotion, facial peel off masks, perfumes, shower gels, scrubbies, and gel eye coolers.

I found hair treatments, and neutral color eye shadows too.

I also did several hypoallergenic bags for those with perfume and fragrance sensitivities. At the thrift store (unbelievably!) there were some full size, brand new, Avon products for just $1 each – I bought them all!

Then, like handing out trick-or-treat goodies, I began filling the bags with goodies.

I want to publicly thank the donors, each and every 1/2 bag, whole bag and multiple bags sponsored made a difference. I won’t tell you who the two gold star donors are, but they donated $50 each to get this project well underway. With the mail from Friday, promises of checks yet to be received, and a couple of donations from the mis-post, the financial goal has been exceeded for the project!! If any additional funds come in next week, I’ll put them to making up additional bags for future residents.

I have responded personally to every donation I have received. If you see your name above, but you didn’t get an email from me, check your spam folder. If you made a donation, and you have not received an acknowledgement from me, and you don’t see your name above, I didn’t get it. Sometimes the long email address doesn’t get transcribed exactly right, and you know how computers can be. Let me know in an email or a comment if this is the case, and we’ll try to resolve it.

I have to tell you all a quick story that just shows how wonderful people can be. While I was checking out at the Dollar store with over 100 items, a lady came up to stand behind me in line. I apologized to her for holding her up as the checker had already begun before she got in line. The checker was curious as to why I was buying multiples of so many things. I told the checker about the project as she was ringing up the sale. When she told me the total, I felt a tap on my shoulder. The total stranger behind me was holding out a $20 bill, and said “I want to help you with that.” I was absolutely blown away. All she would tell me was that her first name was Lisa. So, Lisa, even though you may never see this, I am so grateful for your kindness.

My friend Sam brought over boxes of items to add to the bags, toothbrushes and combs, nail files and razors, deodorant and soaps. Each bag got two or three of each of these items, and there are still some left over that I’ll take with me to the shelter. They can use some of these items for the kids, and the rest can be stored for future needs.

The creativity in the cards coming in is just awesome. The first package from Lenora arrived just days after the Safelight Project post, and contained 16 unique cards with such creativity!

Inside, Lenora put several different sentiments, all very inspiring! I really like how she signed her cards – ” A Friend You Haven’t Met!”

Then, she used a great stamp for the outside of the envelopes and decorated those with stickers too.

Gorgeous cards, here are a few more of her designs.

I was inspired by her cards, and went to the stamping workbench to create a few more for the project. Remember my sunshine box from my friend Val? These daisies came from that box, and I hope they will bring that sunshine to the women. I stamped a bluebird of happiness on textured cardstock, and a Happiness Always greeting. The trim on the bottom is washi tape.

I found the perfect sentiment stamp in the box of goodies given to me by reader Katie. Thanks again, Katie! I signed the cards “Someone Who Cares.”

On the back, this stamp was cute, and left my name off.

I decorated the envelopes too.

Then I stamped this design for another purpose, and made a second one for the Safelight bags. Inside it has my sentiment from the first post on the project.

Karen T. sent in products for the bags, some Mary Kay lip and eye crayons along with some makeup items. Thanks so much, Karen, these will add a lovely touch to some of the bags. I put them in the bags with the hypoallergenic items as those had fewer items per bag. I was able to find sensitive skin unscented shower gel and lotions, but no makeup items, and of course, no perfume. It really helped to balance out the bags so the scent free ones were just as fun as the rest.

Danice made these lovely cards, using the sentiment from my post inside. Thank you, Danice, for blogging about the project as well! She sent an email that she is sending six more cards that should arrive next week too!

Then, a dozen cards arrived from Carol L, beautifully done.

Each and every one has a unique, handwritten message inside. Truly stunning, and once again I was just blown away.

Jennie’s cards arrived on Friday, how lovely!

I love what she did inside too.

The cards are truly the most important piece of this project and without your help, I’d be gluing my own fingers together by now. The inspirational messages will help these women so much, to feel better, to believe in themselves, and to have hope for the future. If you are counting, you’ll notice that we made the goal of 35 cards, but will be using a few more for the extra bags that can be done from the extra donations received. Any additional cards received will be given to the shelter for future needs. Here is one of the bag assortments after week one of shopping. The roll of tissue contains a nail polish, wrapped to keep it from breaking in the bag.

At the second trip to the stores, I found a pedicure set and got more nail polish so every bag has these items.

Several of you have asked about sewing projects, and I do have a couple of things in mind. More cards will be appreciated for holidays coming in a few months. I will look around when I deliver the bags and see what may be needed or appreciated, and we can do another project later in the year.

The drawings for the prizes will be in early August, with the winners notified by email. One question I got privately, but want to answer publicly is regarding the gift card prize. The MasterCard Gift Card prize is not being funded by donations, it is coming out of a points program I have on my personal credit card. So, all your donations, every penny, will go to the gift bags. I’ll draw a couple of days past the postmark date of August 1 so everyone has a chance. You get one entry for each card sent, and one entry for every $5 donation.

Stampin’ Up has provided this wonderful prize for someone making cards for the project. Visit Stampin’ UP to find a demonstrator near you. This company has the BEST stamping supplies!

So, that is where the project stands at this time. It is almost complete! I am still going to wait until August 1 to draw the prizes as I know of at least a couple of things still coming. I’ll bring you another update when the delivery is made in early August. Thank you all for your wonderful support of this project!

Recently I had a very nice conversation via email with a lady named Laresa about our local women’s shelter and crisis intervention services. Safelight incorporates many services for domestic violence victims and sexual assault victims providing counseling, case management, court advocacy, support groups and job training under one umbrella organization. One of their services, a shelter for women escaping domestic violence has undergone some changes in the past year. I had a few small items I could donate to the women at the shelter, but the more I thought about this, the more I came to realize how meaningless my little gesture would be. So, I have hatched a plan. Here is where you come in, dear reader, I cannot do what I have in mind by myself. I need your help. There are two ways for you to help plus you’ll have an opportunity to win some great prizes by helping me to provide gift bags like these to 35 residents.

First, I’d like to invite my stamping and card making readers to make some cards of encouragement and support for these ladies. Something that says “you are worth it”. Cards that are heartening and supportive. Make several in the same design, or use different designs, it is up to you.

The only request is to keep them uplifting in tone, and not to use a religious theme as there are many different religions represented in the residents, and we won’t know who is getting what. Inside the card you can hand write, stamp, or use your computer to make an uplifting message. You could copy a poem, make up your own sentiment, or say something like this on the inside (feel free to copy this if you like) –

“As you go through this time of change,
know that you are important and valued.
You deserve to be happy and safe.
Good luck with your future plans.”

Sign the card as you like – either “A friend who cares” or something similar, your first name or whatever you are comfortable signing. Mail your completed cards to me with an envelope for each one addressed only as “For You”. At least 35 cards are needed for now, and any additional will be saved for future residents, as (unfortunately) there are new residents regularly. You can look to the designs on this post for inspiration, and for even more inspiration, see the blogs of two stamping friends who have graciously agreed to show designs and ideas for this event.

Heather’s blog,Heather’s Creative Blessingshas some wonderful ideas, and is posting today for this event. She does beautiful cards of encouragement every month. Her ideas are just so perfect for this purpose, check out her post today –“You Are Worth It”. You can click on the card above and the ones below for her individual posts on these uplifting messages.

Then check out Heidi’s blog for her post today for the Safelight project – My Little Stamping Blog. Heidi has so many wonderful ideas, and is also helping to spread the word for this charity event. Here is one of her cards, One Sip At A Time, click on the picture to see her post on this inspirational card.

I’ve created a Flickr group for you to share your designs. Click on Safelight Project Flickr Group to see others and comment, and upload your designs for sharing.

If you are not a stamper, you can still be a part of this project. I need 70 sponsors to fund the cost of one-half of one bag and all the goodies inside. That will be $5 per bag, with each bag having 2 sponsors. This will purchase a reusable tote bag plus 8-9 full size items for inside such as nice hand lotion, mud mask, hair treatment, nail polish, a book or a puzzle, bath gel, new hairbrush, makeup, lip gloss and similar items as available. See the picture at the top of the post for an idea of what they will look like. Think of as a day spa in a tote, something to pamper these brave women who have taken an important step to independence, while giving them a bit of encouragement.

For every bag sponsored and card sent in, you will be entered into drawings for some wonderful prizes!!

All those sponsoring a half-bag, and international card making participants will be entered into a drawing for a $50 MasterCard gift card so you can spend it anywhere, provided by From My Carolina Home. Sponsor a whole bag and get two entries! So everyone has a chance to win!

The deadline for entering via sponsorship or card making is August 1st.

At that point, I’ll do the drawings, complete the bags and deliver them.

You can sponsor in two different ways, if you use Paypal, you can send your donation to my email {frommycarolinahome (at) gmail dot com} using the send money to a friend option. If you are not a Paypal user, you can mail a check made out to me to my address. Sponsor half a bag at $5, or a whole bag at $10, any help is appreciated.

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This month, I’ve had a need for several cards for different reasons. One needed to be a card that would be more suitable for a guy. I saw a cute stamp on sale of a pocket watch, so I got it to use with this embossing folder of clock faces.

I embossed blue cardstock, then stamped the pocket watch on cream. Gold accent paper and dark gold cardstock for the frame completed the color selections. The pocket watch stamp came from Just For Fun, and this is the card I will enter in their monthly challenge for June.

All done, the blue and gold would be fine for a guy.

For the inside, I went to the computer, and printed out a couple of sentiments, made up from my own thoughts. Working off the idea of ‘time’, I did this one.

That sentiment could work for so many things! “It’s time to tell you (fill in the blank!).” – Happy Father’s Day, Happy Birthday, Thank You. Or “It’s time you knew (fill in the blank)” – how much I care, how great you are, how proud I am of you, whatever you need to say!

For a birthday card, I had these frames as part of the gifted stash I received from dear reader Katie.

Using one with some of the soft floral paper made a pretty card. I fussy cut it so the butterflies would be in the right places.

I cut the floral paper to size, and rounded the corners with my little punch.

I put a contrasting color behind the flowers on the corners, then stamped Happy Birthday in the center.

All done, with a pretty flower and butterfly on the envelope.

Inside is my favorite sentiment for quilting friends.

And yes, all my cards this time got my personal stamp on the back.

Then, I needed a very fast thank you card for someone who is new in my life. I hope she will become a friend over time, but for now, I wanted her to know that the gathering she hosted at her home was appreciated. So, out came some floral paper with a coordinating solid, and a Stampin’ Up retired stamp set from some years ago.

Another adorable card was sent to me, and I just have to share this fun idea from my new pen pal Jennie. She sent it to me after I sent her some of the Katie stash.

No, I didn’t photograph it upside down, she did it that way on purpose. When you see the inside, you’ll understand why this is just so stinkin’ cute. How clever you are, Jennie!! Thank you!

Speaking of clever, my friend Val who blogs at Val’s Quilting Studio takes the award for all time. She sent me a Sunshine Box as Happy Mail just because she wanted to. How very creative is this! She painted the inside of the box yellow and wrote on the inside flaps!! It was stuffed full of goodies with a sunshine yellow theme – fabrics, papers and bits for cardmaking, lemon drop candies, a cute Mary Englebreit book, ribbons, post-its, crayons, yellow sidewalk chalk, and more.

Every item was yellow in some way, and every one had a cute note attached.

Such a cute dish towel, with a lemon slice and a little note that said “Cheers!” I was just delighted, it was like Christmas morning!

She included tea bags wrapped in teapot fabric with another cute note.

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Normally I would show the card I made for my MIL before Mother’s Day, but she reads my blog and I didn’t want her to see it until she got it in the mail. The idea here can be modified for any holiday or occasion, just change the sentiment. I decided on yellow when I pulled out one of the packs of patterned papers, so I pulled a coordinating yellow base and cut an oversize card to fit an envelope. I had these bird stickers too, and she loves birds.

I wanted a texture look on the inside, and this yellow did well. The green was for contrast for the stamped image.

I took the paper to the computer to print out a nice sentiment as I did not have a stamp that said what I wanted it to say. There is a wonderful website with free verses to print and use – Imag-e-nation. I selected Mother’s Day from the extensive list of occasions, and scrolled down the verses with DH to pick the perfect one for her card.

The paper with the sentiment was cut to the size of the card and glued down. A goldfinch sticker was added.

Another pretty paper was stamped with a floral image. The green frame cardstock was embossed for texture.

I stamped a flower on the inside, and on the envelope, and colored them using my chalks and blender pens.

The stamped image was mounted on the green embossed cardstock, and positioned at the bottom of the card front. A little hummingbird sticker was added for extra interest.

The top of the card front looked a bit bare, so these dimensional flowers were added.

A floral and songbird card for a lovely MIL, here is the finished front and envelope.

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